Studying Popular Culture: Mounties, Muppets and More

Michael Dawson, history professor and member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, will deliver a lecture titled “Studying Popular Culture: Mounties, Muppets and More,” on October 15th at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The lecture will highlight important lessons that can be learned by studying aspects of popular culture that permeate our lives. Dawson will draw upon a number of his current and previous projects—including examinations of the mythic Mounties, the Muppets, tourism campaigns, and international sporting events—to address topics such as national identity, educational policies, and consumerism.

His lecture will also reflect upon the relationship between teaching and research and the sometimes awkward dynamic at play when academic researchers attempt to reach both scholarly and popular audiences.

Dawson is the author of Selling British Columbia: Tourism and Consumer Culture, 1890-1970 (2004) and The Mountie From Dime Novel to Disney (1998). He has also co-edited Worth Fighting For: Canada’s Tradition of War Resistance from 1812 to the War on Terror (2015), A Canadian Girl in South Africa: A Teacher’s Experiences in the South African War, 1899-1902 (2015), and Contesting Clio’s Craft: New Directions & Debates in Canadian History (2009).

At St. Thomas, Dawson teaches courses on Canadian History, the global history of sport and tourism, and the comparative history of national identity and popular culture in Canada, New Zealand and Australia. He currently serves as the university’s Associate Vice-President (Research).